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Archers Suffer Loss in Home Regular-Season Finale

October 12, 2011

Chelsea Higgins follows through on a hit against RobertMorris in the Archers' regular-season home finale Tuesday.

At the beginning of the second game of St. Louis Community College’s volleyball match against Robert Morris University on Tuesday, it appeared the Archers were well on their way to their first home victory of the year.

The Archers defeated Robert Morris in the first game, 25-23, and had already opened up a 12-6 lead in game two. Sophomore middle hitter Chelsea Higgins (Festus) was a force early, particularly defensively when she blocked and redirected multiple Robert Morris attacks.

But their run would halt soon after, however, as Robert Morris used a 16-3 lead to close out a 25-17 win. That would propel them to wins in the following two games as well, leaving the Archers in search of their first win at home. Robert Morris took the final two games in the match by identical 25-20 scores.

“We just made more mistakes and got quiet,” STLCC head coach Johnna Kinney said. “The ups and downs are due to not keeping our level of intensity up.”

The Archers performed moderately better defensively, particularly on their serve-receive, a previous sore spot for Kinney. But that also began to wane as the evening wore on, allowing Robert Morris to pull away late in each game.

“The first game it was great, but it got worse as the match went along,” Kinney said.

Ultimately, Kinney emphasized that the Archers, who thrive on a high-energy style of play, simply became too uptight as the game progressed, leading to mistakes in both communication and execution.

The Archers return to the court this weekend for the East Central Tournament in Union, Mo., and have three more regular-season road games before the Region XVI Tournament Nov. 4-5, which will be played at the Florissant Valley campus.